North Korean cheerleaders: ‘army of beauties’ set to invade South for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang
The cheerleaders are set for their fourth appearance in the South after Pyongyang agreed this week to send a delegation to next month’s Winter Olympics
With their good looks and sharp moves, North Korea’s female cheerleaders are a marked contrast to the regime’s menacing nuclear ambitions.
Dubbed the “army of beauties” in South Korea, the young North Korean women – mostly in their late teens or early 20s – have attracted huge publicity whenever they have been sent to the South.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s future wife Ri Sol-ju was among the group who attended the 2005 Asian Athletics Championships in Incheon.
North and South have been totally separated since the end of the Korean war in 1953, with no direct telephone or postal links between them.
Any North Korean delegations to its neighbour are carefully chosen by Pyongyang, and their movements are tightly controlled in the South. According to reports, the Winter Olympics group could be accommodated on a cruise ship moored in Sokcho, making it easier to monitor them.